


pop culture

by nebulousviolet



Category: H.I.V.E. Series - Mark Walden
Genre: 2008-era pop culture, Gen, lucy is incredibly confused, shelby's a twilight stan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26935621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulousviolet/pseuds/nebulousviolet
Summary: “I have some questions. First of all, who got cast as Edward in the Twilight movies?”Lucy stared at her. The initial panic that had rose in her chest at the word questions immediately dissipated, only to be replaced with utter confusion.
Relationships: Lucia Sinistre | Lucy Dexter & Shelby Trinity
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	pop culture

**Author's Note:**

> taking inspiration from my own textposts when i say that all the hive kids wouldve missed out on SO MUCH pivotal 00s/early 10s pop culture. this is set in 2008, at the beginning of dreadnought. i've been meaning to include poor lucy in something for a while so here we go !!!

“Come on in,” Shelby said, as she ushered Lucy into her dorm room by the shoulders. Shelby, despite her willowy frame, had a surprisingly iron grip; it reminded Lucy of the guards stationed outside her grandmother’s estate in Italy. The fact that the thought of it made her chest pang was a sign of how upside-down her entire life had become - never did she think she’d be homesick for that godawful manor, of all places. Soon she’d be forgetting what her life at home in Cornwall had been like. “Sorry about the mess. We just had end of year testing, and it made me a little loopy.”

Shelby’s room, the one that she shared with the pretty redhead - Lauren? Laurel? Lucy hadn’t had the time to take in her name properly - was in stark contrast to Lucy’s own clinical, minimalist-style single. It appeared to have an invisible line drawn down the middle; one side was clearly Shelby’s, indicated by the hot pink duvet cover, the flowers scrawled in ballpoint pen on the wall adjacent to her bed, the clock with a piece of paper glued over it that declares ‘FREEDOM O’CLOCK’, the carefully printed-out news articles pinned above her desk detailing her exploits as the Wraith. The other was her roommate’s (Lorelai? Lorraine?), and Lucy let her eyes rove over the Scottish flag, the shoebox under her bed, the counter that declared ‘9 Days Since Last Near-Miss’, the university-level physics textbooks stacked up high on her bedside table. “Don’t tell me you’re a computer nerd like Laura,” Shelby sighed, following her gaze. “I’ve finally been outnumbered by child genii. How depressing.”

“I’m not,” Lucy said hurriedly, desperate to quell any of Shelby’s assumptions that she was anything special, and stored Shelby’s roommate’s name away. Laura. Shelby gestured for her to sit, so she did, noting that despite all the aesthetic differences, Shelby’s mattress was the exact same firmness as her own. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

Lucy had always been a little slow to make friends, even in primary school. She’d been so scared to use the voice by accident that she’d scarcely said anything at all. As soon as things had marginally improved by the second year of secondary school, the car crash that took her mother happened, and she’d been packed off to Italy where she endured another two years of crippling isolation. She wasn’t used to this kind of easy camaraderie. It made her stomach twist with guilt, as though she’d manipulated Shelby into bringing her here despite the fact that she knew she hadn’t.

Shelby blinked at her. Her eyes were also blue, but an entirely different shade to Lucy’s own - cornflower instead of indigo. “I literally just dragged you here without giving you much choice,” Shelby drawled, amused. “Wing would totally yell at me if he saw. And you think that’s nice? Jeez. Laura wasn’t kidding when she said British schools were brutal,” she said. Then, as if sensing Lucy’s discomfort, she added, “Look, when I first came here, I was a complete bitch to everyone for a week. I guess I thought if I pissed everyone off, they’d figure out a way to get rid of me and I wouldn’t have to be here anymore. But that’s not really how it works. And I know for a fact that while everyone else was making new friends, I was sulking in my room and generally making life harder for myself. You’ve already got, like, two years of stuff to catch up on. I figured I could at least help you out in the friendship department.”  
“Oh,” Lucy said, because she wasn’t sure what else to say. It didn’t seem as though Shelby was pitying her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

“Anyway!” Shelby beamed, tightening her long blonde ponytail and reaching for a notepad and pen. The handwriting, Lucy realised, was the exact same as the writing on Laura’s counter. “I have some questions. First of all, who got cast as Edward in the Twilight movies?”

Lucy stared at her. The initial panic that had rose in her chest at the word questions immediately dissipated, only to be replaced with utter confusion.

“Don’t you have Google?” she asked, praying that the question didn’t sound as rude out loud as it did in her head.  
“You think Nero lets us have internet access? Cute,” Shelby rolled her eyes. “Even Malpense can’t figure out how to hack the system. Apparently everything we need for schoolwork is in the library, but they’re not real big on stocking anything remotely related to pop culture, therefore you’re my only hope. So. Who got cast as Edward?”  
“Robert Pattinson,” Lucy said. Shelby frowned.

“Really?” There was a distinct note of whining in her voice. “Damn. I don’t even know who he is.”  
“He was Cedric in Harry Potter,” Lucy offered. There hadn’t been much to do at the manor, other than watch TV and do schoolwork; it was almost embarrassing, the sheer number of shows and films she’d marathoned in her two years there. “The fourth film?”  
“Oh!” Shelby brightened immediately. “He’s cute. Have they made any more of those movies? Or are they waiting for the last book?”

Lucy reminded herself that Shelby was being serious - that she’d been even more isolated than Lucy for the past two years. “They released a fifth one,” she said carefully, “and the last book came out last year.”  
“Nero is such a liar,” Shelby huffed. “You know, Laura and I created this massive petition for him to stock the seventh book when it came out, and he swore he’d do it. Asshole. Promise not to spoil me, okay? I’ve got another four years to wait.”

“Okay,” Lucy said. She felt herself grin back. “Any more questions?”  
“I have a three-page list,” Shelby retorted instantly, speaking so quickly that her words almost seemed to slur together. But she seemed pleased at having managed to coax Lucy into a smile. Perhaps, Lucy thought, H.I.V.E. wouldn’t be so bad after all.


End file.
